To the Stars and Back
by Samkin-lone-Senshi
Summary: Naruto and Sasuke find themselves heading to a strange destination on an unusual train with a little girl they only knew briefly in their lives. Based on a book by Kenji Miyazawa, Night of the Milky Way Railway.
1. Chapter 1

To The Stars and Back

A Naruto Story based off Kenji Miyazawa's Night of the Milky Way Railroad

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Night of the Milky Way Railroad, I just thought it would be an interesting the story. The only character that is mine is Mizumi!

Part 1: The Girl They Barely Knew

The star festival was huge, well, it wasn't the biggest festival in Konohagure and for whatever reason, Naruto hated it. He watched as parents gave their children new clothes and sometimes just stared at him as he watched from a window. He remembered being that age and begging Iruka-sensei for at least a nice gi, but all he got was the orange jumpsuit he had on currently.

He watched as people ran around happily, he never really understood the reasoning for the festival. He had begun to hate it, he wanted nothing to do with the festival and would run off into the forest to be alone, he would come back for the fireworks, but that was it. He never really thought much on it, he turned a corner and noticed a girl who silently sat in his old swing, she kicked her feet waiting for someone.

"We should float some gourds down the river, that would be fun, hey, Mizumi come on," a boy from her class brought her up to the front of a group of nine kids. "It was all her idea."

"I actually got it from," she sputtered and looked over her shoulder at Naruto nervously. "Naruto-kun, he thought of it really, you should ask him how to make the gourd boats."

Mizumi was in fact a lot younger than himself, she was the daughter of a doctor who had died on a mission. Ever since that day she lived alone with her aunts, it was kind of a sad affair, the nine year old wasn't much the same since that incident.

The kids looked at him and smiled.

Oh, I know where this is going, I am going to have to show them how to make a gourd boat, he thought sourly and realized he had learned from Iruka how to do it. "Look, Iruka-sensei might be a better choice for this, ask him to show you how!" He darted away not wanting anything to do with the festival.

He crawled up a hill and lay down watching the stars come out, he rolled down the hill after that, then went back up to try it again. He didn't really had a reason for doing it, but when he came up he noticed he wasn't alone on the hill anymore, he saw Sasuke walking up.

"Aren't you going to the festival?" Naruto crossed his arms, he was not about to share his view of the stars with Sasuke.

"I hate the festival, its loud and annoying," the other whispered shortly. "I thought you were going to spend time with Mizumi-chan?"

"She and her friends are making gourd boats with Iruka-sensei, they plan on floating them down the river," Naruto looked away and pulled his hands into his pockets. "Anyway, the festival is for little kids."

Sasuke shrugged and lay down on the grass staring up at the stars. "You know, the only reason we have a star festival is to announce the coming of summer, right?"

Naruto stared back at the stars and sighed, "I think I remember someone telling me if we look at this side of the sky, it looks like a river of milk."

"Kakashi-sensei told you that, I was there."

"Well, it wasn't like you cared at all, you never look at anything and you don't dream either!" Naruto snapped and sat up.

"I dream about a lot of things," Sasuke whispered and rolled his eyes. "I just don't like talking about them. Haven't you ever heard the saying, if you tell someone your dream it won't come true."

They stopped arguing and lay back down on the grass, that was when they jumped at the sound of a train. "There isn't a train for miles," Sasuke stammered when he looked around, he blinked and squinted into the darkness. He fell back against Naruto who was staring wide eyed at a huge black steam train. "Whoa!" Sasuke closed his eyes and looked with the Sharingan, it wasn't an illusion, it was real.

"Galaxy Train, first stop, Earth Station." Someone was speaking through a speaker on the side.

"Let's get on, I bet it might be fun," Naruto ran toward the entrance and Sasuke close behind.

"But we don't have…" Sasuke's voice was rather strained as he climbed on and sat down in a booth next to Naruto who was looking out the window. That was when he saw someone climbing through, it was a girl, they recognized the form instantly, it was Mizumi who looked like she was covered in dew. Her long brown hair sparkled in the light and her sad almost green eyes were a little darker.

"Mizumi-chan!" Naruto smiled. "You saw the train too."

The little girl nodded sitting down after dusting the dew off her. She looked out the window and whispered. "They ran after me, not one could keep up, not even Iruka-sensei could catch me."

Sasuke and Naruto looked out the window and saw what looked like Mizumi kicking and struggling in the water, then quite suddenly the image was gone. The image was replaced by beautiful flowers. "Mizumi-chan look!" Naruto pointed and smiled. "I'll go get some right now, just wait here."

"Its too late, we already passed the flowers," she whispered and smiled. "I want to go to the swans, there is a beautiful place I think called the Cerileanian Sea where there are swans, I want to see them." She brought out a strange looking sphere. "It's the next stop."

* * *

The train came to a halt in front of a strange looking gate, Sasuke was the first off, he stared around him and noticed that the people who disembarked with them were gone. He walked into a waiting area and found that all that was there were luggage and some reading materials. He walked about the room and blinked, he turned around and saw Naruto and Mizumi following close behind him.

He really did not know Mizumi that much, she was always so quiet, he remembered she used to talk a lot more. He remembered that before last year she was quite happy, but when she started to live with her aunt's family, strange wounds would appear. The little girl would cover up in long sleeved shirts and would hide where she had been hit by her uncle.

He remembered a week before he graduated to Genin her father died, she had been eight and just admitted into the school. She never spoke after that, she never even played with her friends who had started to take notice of the reversal of her personality.

It had taken Sasuke awhile to figure out what had happened to Mizumi, it took him a few moments of being inside her aunt's house to figure out what happened. Her uncle was no Ninja and he was a simple farmer, so when they were forced to move into the city, he was angry with the little girl. She had other relatives who would have taken her, but her aunt felt the need to keep her niece with her. The abuse though was something the aunt was oblivious to.

"I'm clumsy, that's all," Mizumi lied to Sasuke many times, when she noticed the cuts and bruises on her.

When he found out what happened to Mizumi she was immediately taken away from the situation and placed with Iruka-sensei for safe keeping. Sasuke had become her hero of sorts, but she never once idol worshiped him, she had a crush on Naruto, that had been evident when she was seven and would watch the boy for hours.

Now though, something was wrong with Mizumi she was silent like she had been after her parent's death. She walked through the strange room and walked out toward what looked like the center of town in Kononhagure. Naruto and Sasuke followed curious as to where it led.

* * *

Naruto watched Mizumi nervously, he had been curious about her for awhile, but she was always strange to everyone in town. After her father's death, he found out that she was being abused by her maternal uncle and was soon placed with Iruka-sensei until a proper home was set up for her. It had happened so fast that really he had no time to really get to know Mizumi who was always trying her best to be good with jutsus, but she was still making some simple mistakes.

He had never really took into account that when it came her safety, Sasuke was always around her, sometimes watching her from a distance as if he was being a big brother. "I don't like it when he does that," Mizumi once whispered when was sitting by the river, but at that time she fell in and nearly drowned. She had never been good at keeping her balance, and that was evident just by how clumsy she had been.

Maybe this is why she's here, she fell into the river, he pushed that thought away and noticed a strange looking door. "Hey, Sasuke-kun!" He waved to Sasuke who followed them down a long trail to some steps and then to a strange looking sea of sand.

"This is beautiful," he whispered and sat down, he looked around the sandy beach to see Sasuke who was holding what looked like a giant acorn. "What is that?"

"It's a fossil," Sasuke whispered and sat down next to him. "Many millions of years ago, this place must have been a forest. These are the remains of it." He always remembered his brother giving geology lessons of sorts like this when his brother was still good. He pocketed it and hoped to put it with his collection.

He looked up and noticed a group of men working on fossils, one of the men was someone who looked like his brother. "Could you please not take the artifacts," the man rushed up and brought out his hand. "Come on now, how would you like if someone took one of your fossilized remains when you died?"

Sasuke complied and put the fossil in the man's hand. "Good lad, now would you like to see the big prize?"

This was not Itachi, he may look like it, but he isn't, Sasuke thought and followed the man who smiled putting on a white lab coat. "Dr. Tohno, I have some people here who would like to see that huge dinosaur you are looking at."

A man with bright white hair and green eyes looked up and laughed. "Hello there, you three must have followed Tobi here to look at fossils. This is a Plesiosaur, close to 65.7 billion years old."

Naruto stared up at the dinosaur in shock, it was huge. "Wow, it looks like it could fly!"

"No, this was a water based creature, he only lived in the oceans," Tobi smiled and looked up at it. "We're just studying the stomach area, so far it ate fish, but your friend here is right, after this creature died, this place turned into a forest. That's why there are so many acorns."

Mizumi smiled and thanked the two and was running back to the beach. "Have to hurry, we'll miss the train."


	2. Chapter 2

To the Stars and Back

Part 2: The Blind Radio Operator and The Observatory

Sasuke and Naruto ran as fast as they could to keep up with Mizumi who was moving far faster than they thought possible. Something isn't right with her, something is really different, Sasuke thought when he arrived onto the train and found her sitting by the window watching as they left the station. He waited until Naruto caught his breath and took him to one of the secluded places of the train. "There is something wrong with Mizumi-chan, she isn't acting like her usual self." Sasuke whispered this to Naruto who nodded.

"Well, let's just sit down and stay with her, she might tell us what is up when she's ready to," Naruto walked back to his seat and smiled at her.

The train went dark like they had gone into a tunnel and then it was light again, that was when a door opened at the far end. An elderly man walked out and slowly talked to someone that Naruto and Sasuke knew quite well, Haku. The boy was helping the man toward a door. "Are you sure you don't want me to translate it for you?" The boy looked at them and smiled.

"Haku!" Naruto rushed over and blinked as the old man went into the office and shut the door, then came out with a message for the boy.

"Oh, right, thanks," the boy nodded and went on to read aloud to the old man. "The Stars of Scorpio are bright tonight," he read and smiled. "As the tail of fire burns all the brighter from the observatory," he looked at the two of them and put the paper into Naruto's hand. "You'll need this later, at least the both of you will." He went back inside the room and shut the door. "If you don't mind, I have work to do."

"Haku!" Sasuke reached out to stop the boy, but his hand passed through the boy's shoulder and the boy turned around.

"Just have a seat, you'll reach the destination soon," Haku smiled at them and then the door shut. His voice was heard a few minutes later announcing the next stop. "The Aboreo Observatory, ticket check in one hour."

The car was soon lit with bright lights, there were people that none of the two Ninja noticed until now. Sasuke blinked and noticed that Mizumi was standing her eyes on the strange looking dome of a planetarium. He gaped at it as well, it was beautiful, he turned around heard the sound of the star festival from home. "Wow, they're having it here too," Naruto whispered and looked around, he turned his gaze back to Sasuke who nodded.

* * *

The darkness was welcoming, Sasuke felt exhausted, he never felt this tired in his life. He pulled his hands up and started to stare at Naruto who was dozing off. He noticed though that Mizumi was sitting staring out the window, her eyes watching for someone. "I am happy you two came with me, I felt scared going by myself," her voice was distant. "Do you think about them?"

"Who?" Sasuke whispered.

"Your parents, I think about them all the time, I hope I didn't disappoint them," her eyes were again down.

"I doubt it," he never thought much on it until now, something was distant and he could not think about his mother and father without thinking about Itachi. Now though he was sitting on the train, he thought about his mother more and more. He looked over at Naruto who was sleeping soundly.

"I envy Naruto-kun, he doesn't remember his mother or father, so he doesn't cry when about them," her voice was softer.

"Don't think about it like that." Sasuke wished his voice was forceful, but somehow he felt tired. He turned to look over and noticed Haku walking from the operator's room, the boy sat down nearby and was staring out a window.

A man in a black robe walked by and smiled. "Haku, I brought you a treat, I bet that old man never gives you candy!"

"Crow, I don't need it," the boy blinked as a strange looking bird appeared. "Come to think about it, you should give my friends some candy," he walked up to them and brought a leg of a bird up to Sasuke. "It isn't bad, believe me."

Taking the strange looking bird in his hand, he took a small bite and his eyes widened, it was the sweetest candy he had ever had. "See, I told you, you would like it," Haku blinked and looked at Naruto. "Still lazy."

"You have no idea," Sasuke whispered and saw Haku smile. "Aren't you…?"

"Hai, I'm dead and this is where I like to be. This train is forever my home, I don't mind, I nearly made it once to the Southern Cross, that's when he left me. But when the old operator needed an assistant and guide, I decided to remain here. I don't mind, and I don't think he minds either."

"You mean…"

"Hai!" Haku looked away and brought his knees up. "He didn't want me to come with him. He didn't want me to suffer his fate, so he pushed me back on the train when we arrived at his destination."

"Where are we going?"

Haku looked over at Mizumi. "Wherever she has to go, you and Naruto-kun are supposed to make sure she gets there. She wanted to say goodbye to you."

Sasuke blinked and wondered though why he felt scared. "Where is she going?"

"Didn't you figure it out? Mizumi died, her soul has always been attached to you and Naruto-kun. She is like your baby sister, you always protected her, right? Even when her uncle was abusing her and she was just taking it, you couldn't stand it. So you had to do something for her, that's why she feels like she has to say goodbye because if she doesn't, you and him might get angry with her."

That makes sense, no matter how I look at it, I have always been able to be like a brother, but it is Naruto who earns the right to call himself her brother. Sasuke looked away. "She's mistaken, I only did her a favor once, I just…"

Haku vanished after that.


	3. Chapter 3

To the Stars and Back

Part 3: The Southern Cross and Children's Songs

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Sasuke whistled this when he was little, his brother would sing it to him when he was sick. He woke or thought he was in a dream, he had been sitting in front of a fire his father had gone off to bed early and it was just him and Itachi staring at the flames. "Do you know what stars are, Sasuke?" his brother brought out a star chart and showed it to him. "Every star was once believed to be the souls of those who passed into the next world."

"Is it true?" Sasuke blinked and looked up curiously, he had been five.

"No, it isn't true, but if you want to believe that Sasuke, you should have something like that to think about," Itachi smiled at him and brought him into his lap. "Let's see, what should tonight's story be?"

"About the foolish hunters!" he laughed.

Sasuke came out of the dream and blinked, he strained to remember the story of the Foolish Hunters, his brother told it to him a thousand times and yet he could never recite it. He remembered something about wild cats trying to eat them. "Some stories aren't meant to be forgotten," he heard someone talking and turned to see a boy who was no older than fourteen sitting there, he kicked his feet and sighed.

"Ka-san told me those stories, then I passed them onto Itachi-chan when I was older," the boy smiled and looked away, his eyes were bright and happy. "It was an accident, I guess I should have waited until you were old enough and then pass them to you, he never learned his lesson. One day a Wild Cat will eat him up."

"Uncle, I'm sorry," Sasuke whispered and ran up hugging him, his eyes filling with tears. "It's all…"

"Sasuke, why do you think it was your fault, you did nothing wrong."

* * *

Naruto was aware that Sasuke was dreaming, he sat up slowly and took off his jacket putting it over his friend. He looked around the car and sighed, this place was warm now, but he still felt nervous, he looked out over the field and saw trees, the smell of apples was everywhere.

A man with blond hair was sitting in one of the booths and was talking to Haku. "I hope we arrive soon, I'm getting tired of waiting."

"Be patient, it will be within the hour," the boy vanished and appeared at another booth talking to someone else, this person pulled the boy onto his lap. "Zabuza-sama!"

"Well, so how is soul collecting?" the man laughed and looked up. "Didn't know those two…"

"They're not dead, they're helping a soul let go," Haku smiled and looked over his shoulder at them.

Naruto shook Sasuke awake who just stared at him with evil eyes. "What?"

"Where are we?" They looked around and found Mizumi was still sitting there staring off into space. "Mizumi-chan, where are we?"

"We're close to the Northern Cross, we're close to…." Her voice trailed off, she was becoming more detached from them as they rode along.

* * *

Haku walked up in a few moments and looked at Naruto and Sasuke. "Did you keep the paper I gave you," he looked up as the door opened and a man came in dressed as a conductor.

Sasuke reached into the jacket that was covering him and pulled out the paper, then the conductor took the paper which turned into two strange looking tickets. "Amazing, a three dimensional tickets, two of them, well, you're going to go far," the man walked on checking everyone's tickets, Haku stood by the operator's door and the man came a halt. "Haku, are you done cleaning out the operator's office?"

"Just about," the boy went back into the office and he was not seen again.

The whole car was empty, Sasuke stretched his legs as he walked around. "I wish he didn't go," he whispered and started to feel lonely. "I just made this wish in my head and he just vanished like that."

In a distance, there was the sound of thunder and the door opened, water was rushing along the floor. A man with a boy walked in, the man had dark green eyes and looked like a doctor, he was holding and helping the boy enter. It looked like the boy couldn't walk. "Robert, look there are two boys just your age on this train, would you like to sit with them?"

The boy nodded silently as Naruto moved to sit next to Sasuke, the boy looked very pale and seemed very tired, he sat down next to Mizumi. "You two must be on the same destination we are," the man sat down and tried to sound friendly. "It was such a horrible accident, I wish I could have done more to help, but my blunder must have hurt him terribly."

Sasuke looked out the window to see strange looking vehicles, they were piled on top of each other. The man was trying to reach a boy who was in the backseat of the other bleeding horribly. Then there was a fire and it trapped the man and the boy inside.

Robert smiled and looked around then closed his eyes going into a deep sleep. "At least now he can sleep without fear of pain." The man looked somewhat relieved, he sat down slowly and looked around.

Sasuke, Naruto, and Mizumi were listening to the story when Sasuke noticed a constellation finally, he blinked at it rubbing his eyes with his hands. "I know this story, Itachi told me it when I was angry about things not going my way."

"That's the scorpion's tale isn't it," Naruto smiled.

"Yeah, once long ago there was a scorpion and it would kill any insect that crossed its path, well one day a weasel found it and tried to kill it. The scorpion was scared of death that it fell into a well and was trapped, he begged and pleaded that his next life wouldn't be so pitiful as this. He swore he would let the weasel kill him when he had the chance, but when he said those words, he caught fire, then the Gods took it up to the heavens and put it as a star, forever burning to remind people of being good." Sasuke recited the story word for word, just as his brother had told it to him. He wished though that Itachi was here to be reminded of it.

"That's a good story," Robert looked up and smiled at him with bright blue eyes. "I love stories, I dreamt my brother, Edmund was telling me a story and then when I woke you were. Any story is good for me."

"Your welcome," Sasuke responded, he nervously looked over his shoulder and noticed the boy vanished and the car was again filled with bright lights.

People were singing, that was what Sasuke and Naruto glanced out and then looked at Mizumi who seemed like she had not heard it, that was when the car went dark again. Sasuke pulled himself out of his thoughts and noticed that once again, Mizumi was standing to stretch, but this time all he could see was the darkness outside the train. He saw stars, but they were flicks of light twinkling, Naruto was looking out too, he was staring at their friend who was walking toward the end of the train.

"Mizumi-chan!" Naruto called to her, he followed her and she turned around. "Where are you…"

"I see Ka-san and To-san," she blinked and ran off, she was running to the end of the train, toward the caboose. She was running a lot faster than normal, Sasuke ran after her too, he was slow to respond, but he was soon in caboose.

"We don't want you to leave, Mizumi-chan," he whispered to her and knelt down to look at her. "Please don't go away."

"I have to, I see Ka-san," the little girl was soon gone and all they saw was a little girl running along the tracks to two people who were standing by a cross roads.

Sasuke soon felt his knees give and he started to feel tears going down his cheeks, he saw Naruto standing staring out the back of the car, his eyes were wide staring at her as she ran away. "MIZUMI!"

* * *

Naruto and Sasuke found themselves back on the hill, they heard the sound of people calling for Mizumi, they looked at each other not sure if they had just had a bad dream. Running back to the town, they saw Shikimaru, Choji, and Ino running with the rest of the crowd. "There you two are," Shikimaru ran up. "There was an accident at the river."

"What happened?" Sasuke walked ahead of Naruto who was still silent about what they both had witnessed.

"You remember Mizumi-chan right?" Ino looked at them waiting for them to nod. "Well, she and her friends were putting gourd boats in the water and well, somehow she fell into the water before anyone could catch her. Iruka-sensei was really upset because Mizumi-chan doesn't know how to swim yet, so we haven't been able to find her because the current picked up since the last rain."

Running to the river, Naruto and Sasuke saw Mizumi's lifeless form being carried from the river by Kakashi who lay her down. He handed her off to Anko who tried to do CPR, but nothing worked. We should tell them that she's gone, Sasuke thought to himself and looked away and noticed Naruto was shaking his head sadly.

"She's gone," Kakashi whispered and pulled a blanket over her face, everyone looked away as he carried her to some doctors who took her away. "This is horrible, does she have any family?"

"No," Sasuke shook his head. "Her mother and father died a long time ago." At least she's with her mother and father now, he thought walking back to her aunt's home to tell the woman the horrible news.

"Sasuke-kun, wait for me!" Naruto ran after him.

End

(Alright there are references in the story relating to Miyazawa stories, one is called Restaurants of Many Orders which is about two very foolish hunters and the other is a story within Night of the Milky Way Railroad.)


End file.
